19 IX 



X 



JNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS BULLETIN 



Vol. X. 



Nov. 25, 1913 



No. 13 



[Entered February 14. 1902. at Urbana, Illinois, as second-class matter 
under Act of Congress of July 16, 1894.] 



Department of Household Science 

Some Points in Choosing 
Textiles 



By 



Charlotte M. Gibbs, M. A. 




PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY 
URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 



Monograpn 



D. OF D. 
APR' 21 1913 






SOME POINTS IN CHOOSING TEXTILES 

In the past century a great change has come about in 
the position of the woman in the home, which lias very vi- 
tally affected her relation to the textile industries. In the 
early days in (his country nearly every woman produced 
the clothing for herself and family, also the household linens 
from the raising of the sheep or flax to the finished 
product. Now all is changed; with the introduction of 
ready-inade suits and other garments, even the sewing is 
rapidly going from the home, while the manufacture of 
cloth is a forgotten arl. 

In olden times the quality of home-spun and woven 
material was the best possible to be obtained from the ma- 
terials and methods known. Woolen cloth was all wool, 
and linen cloth was not adulteraled with starch, or half 
cotton. Honest and durable materials were the rule of the 
day. 

With the introduction of machinery and the factory sys- 
tem came keen competition. Modern discoveries, chemical 
and otherwise, have increased the possibilities of cotton, 
linen, silk and wool so that now it is dilficult to recognize 
the original fiber in some of the materials sold. 

Thus on the one hand the field of textile knowledge has 
grown very much, while on the other hand the knowledge 
of women concerning textile fabrics has decreased, since 
they are no longer the makers of cloth, nor do they always 
gain a knowledge of its characteristics through the making 
of garments. The result has been that v^^omen depend 
more and more on the word of clerks, who are often as 
ignorant as themselves, until by painful experience the 
buyers learn some of the things to be avoided. 

As cost of living increases, and demands upon the 
family purse increase, it is more and more important that 
the woman of the household should know how to spend the 
family income most economically. Since from ten to 



'3-'' 



Uventy percent of this income is spent for clothing and house 
furnishing, it is imperative lliat more thouglit and careful 
study should be put upon this branch of household economy. 
The object of this bulletin is to give some bits of informa- 
tion about textile fibers, their manufacture and adulteration, 
v^hich may help in gaining that judgment in buying essen- 
tial to every woman. 

Certain adulterations and devices of the modern man- 
ufacturer are so skillfully concealed as to be detected only 
by the use of chemical tests, or the high power microscope. 
With these this bulletin will not deal, but only with those 
qualities and adulterations which may be detected without 
the aid of laboratory equipment. Much of course may be 
learned by experience, but it seems better to save time and 
money by knowing beforehand what is to be demanded^ 
what guarded against. 

Each one of the common materials used for textile 
fabrics, cotton, linen, wool and silk, ha^ its characteristics, 
each its definite uses. Certain peculiarities in physical or 
chemical nature make each fiber peculiarly adapted to 
certain nses, but so long as these general qualities are main- 
tained the variety of materials produced from these fibers 
may be enormous. Combinations of fibers in one material, 
adulteration with cheaper fibers, or with starches or metallic 
salts, may serve to reduce the cost, and yet the purpose of 
the material may be fulfilled. For certain purposes the 
materials may be used interchangeably. 

COTTON 

Cotton is cheap and very plentiful. It has short, flat 
fibers, with a spiral twist, thus giving elasticity and the 
possibility of being spun into fine thread. Being in itself 
very useful and inexpensive and capable of replacing, to a 
certain extent, any other fiber, it is used in very large quan- 
tities the world over, and is manufactured into a great 
variety of materials. The quality of these materials depends 
on the strength of the fibers, the fineness or coarseness of 
material, the weave, the color and design, and the adultera- 
tions. 



Cotton, being cheapest, is not adulterated with any of 
the other fibers mentioned, wlien the material is to be sold 
as cotton cloth, but it can be made to appear heavier by the 
addition of mixtures called sizing. Starches, gums, dextrine, 
glue, china clay, as well as other ingredients in varying pro- 
portions, constitute this sizing which may add a large per- 
cent to the weight of the cloth. The spaces between the 
threads are filled up and a good finish is given to the cloth, 
although the wearing quality is not increased. If present 
in large quantities the cloth is greatly reduced in weight and 
firmness after the first washing. 

Adulterations of this kind can be detected by the feeling, 
a large quantity imparting a harshness to the material. In 
very thin fabrics the sizing may often be detected by hold- 
ing the cloth up to the light when the starch shows betv^a^en 
the threads. Washing or thorough boiling of a sample 
will show the amount of sizing present. 

Another method of adulterating cotton is shown in 
certain kinds of dotted swiss. A good swiss has thread 
dots woven or embroidered in the cloth. Fig. lA shows a 
piece of material sold at the price of a good swiss, but in 
this case the dots are merely a heavy paste, printed on the 
cloth. Fig. IB shows the result of continued washing, 
where the dots have disappeared, and Fig. IG, the result of 
ironing with a hot iron, which turned the spots brown be- 
fore the cloth itself is harmed. 

Mercerized cotton is a cloth produced by the action of a 
strong alkali on cotton fiber rinsed under tension. It is a 
strong, attractive material, with good wearing qualities. An 
imitation of this may be made by the action of very heavy 
and very hot cylinders on ordinary cotton cloth. The 
mercerized cloth has a high luster which it retains after 
many washings while the imitation loses its luster with the 
first washing. 

Sometimes cotton cloth which has been on the market 
for some time is weakened by the action of the chemicals 
used in bleaching, dyeing or in the sizing. This may be 
easily detected by tearing the cloth. 

Standard cotton materials such as muslins, organdies, 
percales, calicoes and sheeting, differ only in the weight of 



G 

the material, fineness of tliread, tiardness of twist and metliod 
of finisti. Ginghams have the thread dyed before weaving 
and fancy weaves are frequently used. Ducli, denim and 
some other heavy materials have very hard twisted threads 
and are frequently woven with a twill. Silkolene is a trade 
name for a fine cotton cloth with a silky finish given after 
tlie cloth is 'woven. 

Mercerized cottons mal^e lustrous materials as poplin, 
imitation pongee and numerous attractive house furnishing 
materials. 

India "linon" is entirely cotton, with a fleecy surface on 
the wrong side, as is "outing flannel" and "canton flannel". 

Many "tussahs," "voiles" and "economy linens" and 
other materials with rather deceptive names are cotton 
materials made to imitate silk, wool or linen. 

LINEN 

Linen was formerly the most important vegetable fiber, 
and was commonly used for all household purposes. Of late 
years it has been largely replaced by cotton witli which it 
may be compared although there are still uses for which we 
demand linen, and others for which we prefer linen to cot- 
ton. 

The linen fiber is long, smooth and quite lustrous, when 
spun into a thread. It is very strong and there are not so 
many fuzzy ends as are found in cotton. Cloth made from 
it is not only lustrous and rich looking, but because of its 
smoothness stays clean longer than cotton. The snowy 
whiteness of linen obtained with some difficulty in bleach- 
ing is quite permanent, and since the fiber takes dyes with 
difficulty and parts with them quite readily, it also does not 
retain stains as persistently as cotton does. 

Linen is much more expensive than cotton, and when 
linen prices are paid linen should be demanded. Since the 
two fibers are rather hard to distinguish, especially when 
heavily starched and given a good finish, it is quite easy to 
deceive the buyer. "Linen" collars are frequently largely 
cotton, '^linen" handkerchiefs may not have a thread of 
linen, as is apt to be the case with rather inexpensive em- 



A 



B 



FIG. 1 



broidered handkerchiefs, and table "linen" may be merceriz- 
ed cotton, cotton and linen, or even ordinary cotton. 

To distinguish linen from colton, examine the threads 
carefully; cotton is made up of short fibers which project 
from the surface of the thread, and become fuzzy when the 
thread is rubbed between the fingers; when broken, cotton 
has a tufted end, while the linen fibers break more unevenly 
and leave a more pointed end. The linen thread should he 
stronger than the cotton; it has more luster and is usually 
more uneven. Some kinds of linen have flat threads, but 
cotton is frequently finished in imitation of flat thread linen. 

The old test of moistening the finger and putting it un- 
der the cloth is not always a sure one, as the moisture will 
not come through a heavy linen, or one with much starch 
in it, and it v^'ill come through a sheer, tightly twisted cot- 
ton, A better test is to put a drop of olive oil on the cloth 
and press between blotting papers. The linen becomes more 
transparent than the cotton. 

There is a peculiar leathery feel about good table lineiiy 
which cotton will not give, and the luster is different 
although the difference is hard to describe. 

The typical weaves used for linens are as follows. The 
damask, satin or sateen weave used for table linens and 
towels is especially good for the former because of the very 
smooth lustrous surface it affords, but not so good for towels 
as it does not absorb moisture very readily, although it 
is very attractive, Huck, an uneven weave, giving a good 
surface for the absorption of water, makes splendid towels^ 
and decorated with designs in damask weave may be very 
handsome. Many linens in plain weaves are available for 
clothing, embroidery, etc., while the coarse Russian crashes 
are becoming quite popular for decorative purposes. 

The texture of linen is such that the heavier kinds hang 
well in folds, lie flat on a table, and are very artistic for 
many purposes, 

WOOL 

Wool, the second fiber in amount used for clothing, is 
an animal fiber and differs greatly from the vegetable fibers 
discussed. Wool from the sheep's back differs from hair 



9 

of goats or other animals in several ways. Wool is very 
curlv, and possesses a scaly structure in a much more 
marked degree than hair, in which the external scales 
lie Hat. The surface of wool has sometimes been compared 
to a pine cone, or the scales of a fish, altliough these two 
are quite different. The scales on the wool liber when 
moist and warm stand up, more as the pine cone, and when 
cold and dry or cold and moist, lie flat. This peculiar 
structure of the surface of the wool fibers gives tliem Ihe 
property of felting, or matting very closely together. Wool 
is also quite elastic, although it has not great strength. 

Since the demand for woolen cloth far exceeds the sup- 
ply of new wool there are many devices for malting the 
supply go a long way, and consequently many methods for 
deceiving tlie buyer. In adulterating a material the manu- 
facturer seeks a material cheaper than the fiber he wishes 
to adulterate, one which can be concealed readily. Wool 
when combined witli the cheaper cotton fiber makes a male- 
rial which wears well, but does not keep its shape as well 
as all-wool cloth, is less warm, and should of course receive 
a lower price than all-wool. 

Because of the felting property of wool it is quite pos- 
sible to conceal a good deal of cotton under the surface of 
the w^oolen cloth, and when the fibers are mixed before the 
threads are spun the task of detecting Ihem becomes doubly 
dillicult. 

WOOLENS AND WORSTEDS 

Two classes of cloth are manufactured from wool. 
Woolens are made usually of short wool carded and spun 
into yarn in which the threads lie in all directions. This is 
woven into cloth which usually has the surface heavily 
felted, so that all of the intersections of threads in weaving- 
are covered. Here then is splendid opportunity for adulter- 
ation, since cotton or poor wool may be covered up by the 
surface felting. 

WORSTED 

The other class is made from longer staple wool, comb- 



10 




FIG. 2 



11 

ed, and drawn until the fibers are parallel, then hard twist- 
ed. When woven the ends of the threads do not project on 
the surface, and the finish is not intended to cover the weave, 
hence it is more difficult to adulterate unless entire cotton 
threads were woven with the worsted, and these are more 
easily delected than a mixture of cotton and wool, or shoddy 
in woolen cloth. Common examples of woolens are flannels, 
broadcloth and Venetian cloth; of worsteds, serge, challie, 
men's suitings and voile. Mohair is a worsted cloth woven 
of the wool of the Angora goat^ with a warp usually of cot- 
ton or silk. 

The most reliable tests for a mixtureof cotton and wool 
are chemical or microscopic ones^ but as these are not prac- 
tical for (he average buyer, others must be sought. Wool 
has luster and "'kinks;" the ends of the threads are stiff 
and look rather wiry. When a sample is carried home, 
burning will serve to distinguish between the two. ^^'ool 
burns slowly, chars, has an odor of burnt feather, goes out 
easily and leaves a crisp ash; cotton burns quickly with a 
flame, with little odor and leaves no ash. 

A little practice in breaking the threads will help one to 
distinguish between the two; the difference is not one that 
can be easily explained, but the experienced housewife 
knows it well. 

Fig. 2A shows a sample of all-wool cloth, of the class 
of worsteds which cost seventy-five cents a yard. Fig. 2B 
shows a sample of cloth of the same price, called by the 
clerk, all-wool, but which on examination was found to 
have only four threads of wool to every twelve threads of 
cotton. Fig. 2G shows this same cloth with the wool re- 
moved by strong alkali, caustic potash, leaving the cotton. 
Fig. 2D shows the wool left when the cotton has been rav- 
elled out, or has been removed by a strong acid solution. 

Fig. 3 shows a sample of mohair in which the wool has 
been partly removed, and the cotton warp is left. In this 
case the price is not high, and because of the character of 
the cloth the mixture is a good one, light, smooth, and clean. 
This cloth is not sold for all-wool, so is not considered adul- 
terated. 



12 

As has been said before, the demand for woolen goods is 
so much greater than the supply that it is necessary to re- 
sort to various measures to increase the supply of cloth. 
One method is to use the wool over and over again. Rags 
are bought up by the rag man, sold lo Ihe larger dealer, 
again to the "shoddy" manufacturer who cleans them, sorts 




FIG. 3 



SHODDY 



them, tears Ihem to pieces, using the best all-wool rags to 
produce fibers, which are respun and again woven either 
separately, if of very good quality, or mixed with newwool 
or cotton. Such a material is warm, looks well for a time 
and has its place, but must not be bought for new wool, or 
demand the price of good woolen clolh. This industry is 
enonnous and shoddy is often found in expensive novelty 
materials as well as in cheap "all-wool" cloth. Because of 
the shortness of the fibers it may be detected readily, when 
used alone, but in combination with good wool it is more- 
difficult. 



13 

One class of shoddy consisls of very short fibers, clip- 
pings from the mills, which are worked into the surface of 
a felled cloth after it is woven. These short fibers afler a 
time work out, and are found in the bottoms of coats, in- 
side the linings, etc., leaving the surface of the cloth thread- 
bare. 

Fig. 4 shows a piece of shoddy cloth, sold for all wool 
at fifty cents a yard. This cloth would be warm, but does 
not look as well as more expensive cloth, and will not wear 
as long as new wool. There is some collon mixed with the 
wool before spinning, therefore it is dilficult to detect. 




FIC 4 



SILK 



Silk is frequently known as the fiber of luxury. It is the 
most expensive to cultivate, the most beautiful and the 
strongest fiber. Since it is the most expensive fiber to buy, 
and the demand for it is so great, the temptations to adul- 
terate are also naturally very great. The long, strong, lus- 



14 

trous silk fiber which bleaches and dyes beautifully and is 
fine as a spider's web, is not to be duplicaled. The best grade 
or "reeled silk" is taken from the cocoon in one continuous 
thread wiiich may be several hundred yards long. In man- 
ufacturing reeled silk many defective cocoons are found in 
which the fibers are not perfect, or are broken. The silk 
from these cocoons may be treated like a short fiber and 
spun into threads varying in strength according to the length 
of the fibers. This so-called "spun" silk has not the high 
luster nor strength of "reeled" silk, but is often used as 
warp with reeled silk filling, or in imitation pongee, and 
back of satins, velvets and in many other ways. 

In olden times the price of silk was much greater than 
now, but the material was much more durable. Silks which 
have been laid away for a hundred years are still in fairly 
good condition. Now our silks are much cheaper, but the 
result is that when they are put away, even for a few months 
they may fall into bits, and their wearing quality can not 
be compared with the good old silks of long ago. The reason 
for this change is not hard to find. The cost of raw silk is 
about thirty times that of raw cotton and the waste at least 
five limes that of cotton. The manufacturer must make up 
in some way if he is to sell silk at the prices demanded by 
the public. 

Silk has a very great ability to absorb dyes and metallic 
salts without apparently changing the quality of the mate- 
rial, and since dyes and metallic salts are much cheaper than 
pure silk, the manufacturer makes great use of these mate- 
rials. Loading is the common name for this process of treat- 
ing silk and it is common practice to add thirty percent of 
foreign material, just the percent lost by the silk when the 
gum is removed, while it is possible to add two hundred 
fifty or even three hundred percent. 

When we buy novelties and do not care how short their 
life is to be, these heavily weighted silks answer the pur- 
pose very well, but when we wish for durability and the 
silk begins to crack and split or to become shiny after a few 
wearings we realize the disadvantage of our modern 
methods. Practically no silk can be found on the market 



15 

entirely free from loading, but there is a great difference 
in the amount present. 

Burning is (he simplest test for good silk; a thread of 
pure silk will burn slowly leaving as it burns a very small 
amount of crisp ash in a ball at the end of the thread. 
Heavily weighted silk burns and leaves the ash in the form 
of the original thread; this ash of course drops to pieces 
readily. Fig. 5A shows a piece of taffeta sold for one dollar 
a yard. Fig. 5B shows the result of burning the silk. This 
ash, left in the shape of the original sample, is made up of 
metallic salts, dyesluffs, elc. A very small percent of ash 
would be left from the silk itself. 

Anolher method of adulterating silk is with cotton. The 
fibers are not spun together here as the cotton and wool, but 
the threads of the two materials are woven together. In 
satins, velvets and brocades the cotton is entirely covered by 
the silk threads on the surface, and appears as the back of 
the cloth. In cheap silks a fine cotton thread sometimes 
forms either warp or filling. 

Pongee is a material made from the cocoon of the un- 
cultivated silk worm ; rajah, tussah and olher uneven, coarse 
materials are from the same source. These silks are very 
strong, but do not have a high luster. Mercerized cotton 
looks quite silky and is sometimes mixed with these silks, 
or a material of mercerized cotton and spun silk may be 
sold for pongee, or even a material entirely of mercerized 
cotton. 

CONCLUSION 

To sum up, the adulterations most likely to be found 
and the tests for them are as follows: 

METHOD OP ADULTERATION 

1. By combination. Use of other fibers than the one 
indicated by the name of the material. Example, cotton in 
woolens, cotton in linens, etc. 

2. By substitution. Selling one fiber under the name 
of an entirely different one. Example, mercerized cotton 
sold for silk or linen. 




FIG. 5 



17 

3. By increasing the weight of a material, a. Cottons 
and linens with starch; b, silks with metallic salts and dyes. 

4. By giving a finish which is deceptive, a. Heavy 
pressing or calendering an ordinary cotton to imitate mer- 
cerizing; b, finishing cotton to look like linen; c, printing- 
paste dots on cotlon to produce the effect of embroidered 
doited Swiss. 

5. By use of made-over yarns. Example, shoddy in 
woolens, also addition of short wool, felted in surface. 

TESTS FOR ADULTERATION 

1. Examination of cloth to see if all threads are alike 
and to distinguish kind of thread. 

2. Examination of individual threads. 

Cotton: short fibers, ends appear fuzzy in thread. 
Wool : short fibers, decidedly kinky and stiff. 
Silk: long straight fibers with luster; if spun silk, 

fibers short; thread looks more like cotton; 

breaks more easily than reeled silk. 
Linen: strong threads; high luster; when broken 

ends very uneven and straight. 

3. Burning tests: a, cotton burns quickly with flame; 

b, wool burns slowly, chars, gives off odor of burnt feathers ; 

c, silk burns slowly, leaves small crisp ash, and when weight- 
ed leaves more ash; d, linen, similar to cotton. 

4. Linen if without much starch, becomes translucent 
when treated with olive oil; cotton remains opaque. 

5. A mixture of cotton and wool when wet, wrinkles 
more than pure wool. 

6. A careful examination of the finish of the material. 
Observe if alike on both sides, if the apparent beauty of the 
material is due to finish or to good quality of material. 

Finally, the best grades of material are generally what 
they seem to be; although this does not always hold true in 
silks, nor in materials where the effect is more important 
than the wearing quality. Expensive broadcloths, worsted 
suitings, expensive table linens, good cottons, do not pose 
for more than their true worth. It is when one turns to 
novelties, to silks and to inexpensive materials that one needs 



18 

to be nTost vigilant. Be sure ttie inexpensive is not cheap, 
unless you want a material, cheap in wearing quality and 
appearance, as well as in cost. 

OTHER POINTS IN BUYING 

Aside from the question of whether the buyer is getting 
the kind of material she pays for as to character of the tiber, 
there are other things to be considered in choosing textile 
fabrics. 

The weave affects the appearance and often the wear- 
ing quality of cloth. A close twill weave makes a firm, dura- 
able material, while the loose basket weave gives quite a dif- 
ferent effect and is frequently lacking' in firmness. The 
satin or sateen weave makes a beautiful surface especially 
in linens or silks, but may cover up defects in the hidden 
threads. Fancy weaves in cotton novelties, in shirt waist 
materials and in fancy mulls, etc., often leave loose threads 
which become soiled easily and may not be as attractive 
after washing. A cloth with a very heavy cross thread or 
filling, and a very fine warp, or vice versa, may split because 
of the great difference in the strength of the threads. 

Sometimes figures are woven in such a way that when 
the cloth is finished each figure has short ends of thread. 
For example, in weaving madras curtain material, the fill- 
ing thread which makes the figure, jumps from one figure 
to anolher, and afler the material leaves the loom the loose 
threads are cut off of the back of the material. Often 
these short pieces wash out or Ihe ends become rough and 
fuzzy looking. 

In choosing a material from the large variety on the 
market the first thing to be determined is the use to which 
it is to be put, then determine what is appropriate to that 
use. The cloth which is suitable for a street suit is obvious- 
ly not suited to the party gown, neither are laces of dressy 
waists appropriate for working clothes. Clothes that areto 
be worn constantly need to be of material that will stand 
frequent cleaning. In materials used in house furnishing 
certain ones must be cleaned often, and unless one can af- 
ford to pay frequent cleaner's bills, washable materials are 



19 

betler for curtains, bed-spreads, table-covers, etc. The cost 
is the next point to be considered, and that must necessarily 
be determined by one's purse. It is not always economy, 
however, to buy the inexpensive things, for, as we have 
seen, the inexpensive articles are more likely to be the 
cheap ones. With our desire for continual change, our love 
of novelty and fad we have become very extravagant. So 
long as the fashion demands new garments every few months 
and women attempt lo follow the styles, they must choose 
inexpensive materials unless they have a large amount of 
money, and care nothing for wearing quality. In the end, 
however, the woman who buys carefully, makes use of con- 
servative styles which do not change every few months, 
and chooses handsome material, is not only more econom- 
ically, but also usually betler dressed. 

The hygienic properties of materials should be carefully 
considered. Those next the body should be able to care for 
the perspiration and the excretions of the skin. Woolen 
and silk are best suited by their physical structure to do this, 
but wool is too warm and too irritating to many people, 
and does not wash well, while silk is too expensive. Many 
kinds of cotton underwear have been manufactured which 
by their structure aid in absorbing moisture. Underwear 
knitted or woven with meshes containing large enclosed air 
spaces is more hygienic than closely woven cotton gar- 
ments. The air spaces in the mesh material are non-con- 
ductors of heat, and also ventilators. The closely woven 
garment does not allow a change of air next the skin and 
becomes clammy when moist. Garments which come in 
contact with the outside air must be more closely woven to 
keep out the wind. Two layers of lighter weight material 
are warmer than one layer of thick because of the non- 
conducting air between. Heavy clothes are bad for the body 
because of the extra load which must be carried about. 

Finally, in choosing materials, if one is to have the 
greatest pleasure from them and give one's friends the 
greatest pleasure, color and design are very important. 
Colors should be suitable to the use, and to the person 
who is to wear the material. Bright colors make one con- 
spicuous, and are exciting; dull ugly colors are depressing, 




20 

while soft ricli colors are elegant, becoming, and in good 
taste. 

Designs should fit the place in which they are to be used. 
Rugs should be so designed (hat they serve as a background 
to the furniture of Ihe room as well as add richness in color 
and some variety. Materials which are to hang in folds 
should have designs which dc not depend on smoothness of 
surface in order that they may be effective. For clothing, 
designs should be inconspicuous, modest stripes, dots and 
plaids being most successful, except on very soft thin ma- 
terials when larger and less conventional designs may be 
used. 

To be an intelligent buyer it is necessary then that the 
woman knows before she purchases a piece of cloth just 
where it is to be used, just what she can afford to pay for 
it, what she should be able to get for that amount of money 
and then be able to tell whether the piece of cloth she buys 
is really what it is represented to be. At the present time 
the rush to the bargain counter, the enormous amount of 
cheap, poor material manufactured, and the great waste in 
dress, all go to i)rove that there are many women who are 
not intelligent buyers. .,: 

When women demand a belter quality of materials and 
refuse to buy the cheap things, the manufacturers will cease 
to produce worthless things. Pechaps however, before that 
day arrives, the thoughtful workers, of Ihe land will have 
succeeded in passing a pure texliie law, which shall do for 
our cloth what the pure food act is doing for our food sup- 
plies; then the honest thougli ignorant buyer will be pro- 
tected, but it will still be her part to demand good, artistic 
and useful materials. 



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